New beginnings
by Kiarashadowdragon2
Summary: When Lightning transfers schools, she never thought she'd make any friends, let alone ones that save the world. Nor did she think she'd find connections to her dead mother's past in Code Lyoko. She didn't think she'd ever have wings, and most importantly, she never thought she'd find love.
1. Chapter 1

**This is sort of a remake of a story I had on Quizilla (no my user name on there is not kiarashadowdragon2 so do not bother), before I gave up on the site for making me rewrite stories 100 times, because of errors. Finally I just gave up, and spent a lot of time rewriting this, and making improvements, mainly, actual paragraphs. I hope to have all of my stories transferred at some point, however, it takes so much effort do to my love for major improvements I might not bother with some. In fact, I'd say this story is almost unrecognizable. It's still not my favorite, but it's not now. **

There were whispers as the students studied the unknown girl at the front of the classroom. She was obviously new since no one recognized her, and it was weird to switch classes in the middle of the year. Her clothes were all black and her dark brown hair was either extremely wavy, or slightly curly depending on whom you asked. That and her iridescent blue eyes were her most notable features. Without them, and the fact that she was new, everyone would have instantly forgotten about her. She simply blended in with the background far too well. Nothing about her short-sleeved shirt, or dark washed jeans told anyone anything about her. In fact, the only thing that did show personality was her bracelet. It was a charm bracelet, with everything from valuable jems, to a string tied in a knot, to small metal charms in weird shapes. Both Jeremy and Yumi noticed that everything, but the knotted string was either valuable, or worth a decent amount of money. Yumi made a mental note to tell her later to never take it off, or hide it in a very good place before someone stole it. She could already see Sisi eyeing it from where she was sitting.

"Now, now, everyone settle down," the old science teacher was done looking over some papers that were handed to her when she first walked in to class and was now eager to quickly introduce the new student and get on with class, "we have a new student here named Lightning, please give her a warm welcome."

"Um, hello…" she looked fairly uncomfortable with the now awkward silence despite looking fairly confident earlier. A couple of other people called out hello to her as well, but apparently they felt just as uncomfortable with the awkward silence as she did.

"Now then, where should I put you, hmm… how about next to Odd. I'm hoping his bad behavior won't pass on to you and you won't start making paper cranes during tests?" Her eyebrows raised accusingly in the boy, Odd's, direction.

"But you have to admit, I do make some great paper cranes!" He joked grinning at the teacher. The majority of the class smiled too, although many tried to hide it.

"Humph, stay after class then and we can have a nice long detention where you can make up those tests you miss in favor of cranes shall we?"

"Nope, no, I think I'm good actually," He gave a nervous chuckle with his words that were said a little too fast.

"Well maybe if you actually try to do your test today, I might hold off on some of those plans." The teacher snorted, now some of the other kids were chuckling.

Lightning's POV: Generally, I enjoy being forgotten, and fading into the background. I actually make a conscious effort to do so most of the time with my clothing and actions. When you aren't noticed, you're left alone, when you're left alone, your life tends to be fairly peaceful. However, after I sat down, and my new teacher announced that there was a test and that I didn't have to participate because I was new (to Odd's obvious annoyance), I started getting a few mischievous thoughts with the conversation earlier in class still fresh in my mind. Coming to a decision I knew I would regret, I put down my half picked up book, and grabbed some scratch paper out of my bag, and began folding.

By the time class was over I folded 15 paper cranes and finished my book from earlier. The rest of the class laughed at the teacher's expression when she looked at my desk and saw them.

"I sincerely hope you don't do this with actual tests, Lightning." There was no humor in the teacher's voice compared to when talking about Odd doing the same thing, and I knew why. I gave her a sheepish grin and shook my head.

As I was leaving, I looked around trying to find the blond kid with glasses I had seen earlier.

"Excuse me, Jeremy?" I said finally finding him, he was absorbed in a conversation with a girl I didn't know.

"Hm? What is it? You're Lightning right?" He said turning around.

"Yes, uh," the girl was staring at me making this a lot harder than it should've been to ask, "The curriculum at my old school was slightly different than here, so the principle decided that it would be a good idea to ask someone to help with what I don't know, so…" I trailed off a little before rushing on; I didn't like asking for help at all "So could you?" I didn't have to finish the 'could you' sentence because thankfully, it was quite obvious what I was asking.

"I guess so, if you told me what you don't know, and if it's okay if Aleita here comes too, we've been working on an experiment together." Right, they want keep working whatever it is they're working on every possible chance they get during my little tutoring session.

"Yeah, don't worry, it shouldn't take that long, and after you taught me the basics I can learn the rest on my own."

"We can meet in my dorm after class if you want. The doors are labeled so you shouldn't have any problems." (AN: I don't know if they're actually labeled or not, but I don't care, they are now)

It had been about an hour after class, and I was about to part from Aleita, and Jeremy, to learn the rest on my own like I said I would. As I previously suspected, they were working on something to do with robots every second they got, but I didn't mind, and actually found it some-what interesting. Jeremy probably knew more than Aleita did, and I'm fairly certain he went a little out of the curriculum with what he taught me, but Aleita was extremely good at remembering numbers, and was probably the better teacher because she didn't treat it like a chore. She didn't even have to help Jeremy tutor me, but she did which I was thankful for. Suddenly the door was slammed open, and the P.E. teacher, Jim, came in with a weird marking in his eye, and a club in his hand. I noticed that Jeremy, and Aleita _were _panicked, but not as scared as most people would be.

"J-Jim?" Jeremy tried, I don't think he really expected an answer, and he didn't get one.

We all jumped in different directions, and out of the way when he swung the club at us. We all ended up pressed along different walls though because the room was so small..

"What's going on here, Jeremy, Aleita?" I knew it wasn't my past catching up to me, but I couldn't help but be a little scared, and they seemed to have some idea of what was going on. They did seem a little surprised when he tried to swing at me again though.

Long experience with fighting was the only reason I was able to dive under him in time to avoid injury, roll past, get on my feet again, and run a few feet away fluidly, and barely stopping in my movements. It was also why I was able to so easily forget that I had left the closest people I had to friends around here, behind with an insane psychopath.

As it turned out, I needn't worry; even though Jeremy somehow got hit out of his dorm with the club, he was only some-what dazed from hitting the wall across from his dorm, and being electrocuted, from what I could tell, he'd only have a few bruises later. Aleita also took the opportunity to dash past the psycho since he was no longer blocking the entire doorway, while I went back and helped Jeremy get back on his feet. Then like any normal person would do, we ran. Not sure where we were going, but I knew it was sure to be better than here, so I just followed Aleita, and Jeremy.

"Why was he attacking you specifically?" Jeremy asked clutching his head. Huh, maybe he took more damage from that hit than I thought.

"What's going on here?" I countered.

"That's kind-of a long story…"

"I have nothing planned for the next 60 or 70 years of my life, and you have the rest of the night, and every day of the rest of the school year, spill it!" I growled. Mean, but I was nearly killed, and that deserves answers, not a brush off.

"Um, well," He glanced at Aleita, "why don't you wait until the others get here…"

I ran in front of them, forcing them to stop, and waggled my finger at them "Oh no, you're telling me _exactly_ what the hell is going on here, or you can face the psychopath behind us." I knew I was probably not doing myself any favors being this forceful about it, but there was also no way I was letting this slide.

"W-what, you realize he'll attack you too, right?" Jeremy tried

"Yes, but I don't care, I want answers, and I'm confident I can get away again."

"Just tell her, she won't remember after we return to the past, and we don't have any time to waste," Aleita said, looking back behind her

"Fine, but I explain while we run," Jeremy glared a little.

I nodded in agreement and moved aside, before we began running again.

"A while ago I started up a super computer that had a sort-of virtual reality on it."

"Umm, okay…" I said not really seeing where this was going.

Aleita continued for him "The program had a bug we call Xana, that tries to bring disaster to the real world, because when one of the towers in the virtual world is activated it allows him-" I cut off Aleita.

"It," I corrected

"Huh?"

"If it's a bug, it should be an 'it', no matter what you call it, but continue."

"R-right well, I was trapped in the virtual reality, and they decided to keep it running to get me out again, but when they did, Xana made sure that they still couldn't turn it off without killing me because h-it, corrupted my data." Huh, maybe they were right to call it a 'he' it must have been a pretty big mistake to be complex enough to do that.

"We're… still working on a solution." Jeremy admitted reluctantly.

I nodded and asked, "So, are we going to deactivate the tower then?"

"Yes, then we return to the past so we don't have to explain the broken door to our dorm."

Which all sounded well and good except for one thing. I was determined to remember what happened.

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	2. Virtual World

**I just realized how many changes I want to make to the first part. Yes, it is still drastically better than it was originally (as scary as that sounds), but I'm a perfectionist, and it is still terrible. I hope to make changes to this part too, however I wanted to at least get this posted, since its been a while since I posted anything. Some of the changes include trying to make her a little less Mary Sue. However, that will be a serious personality flip-flop, and I figured that it could wait a while... I could also be a jerk and post a series of author notes, before a 'sorry this is discontinued please read my rewrite'...**

**Just kidding, I might end it abruptly if I lose interest but I hate those discontinued notes. In any case this is several part of my old story into one. Enjoy! **

"Transfer Aelita…scanner Aelita…virtualization!

Aelita, I placed you near a tower, get inside and stay there until the others get here. Okay?" Jeremy said as he tried to ignore Lightning as she awkwardly stared over his shoulder.

"Don't worry, I see it." Aelita was already running towards it.

"How long will that be?" Lightning asked in a slightly detached voice, like her mind was thinking about something else, still staring unnervingly at the screen

"I'm calling them right now." Jeremy said somewhat defensively at her tone.

After typing a few keys, Ulrich's picture appeared on the screen with numbers beneath it like on a cell phone, it kept flashing, but nothing happened, the same thing occurred when he tried the same thing with Yumi, but he managed to get a hold of Odd.

"Oh, Hey Jeremy what's up?"

"It's a Xana alert, but I can't reach the others."

"That's because they are in the middle of some martial arts thing, or something. I'm in the middle of a detention right now, but I'll see what I can do."

"NO CELL PHONES IN DETENTION!" Even Jeremy and Lightning jumped a little when Jim yelled.

"Uh oh, I'll talk to you later."

"I guess we'll just have to wait until they get here. At least Xana isn't doing anything too dangerous… yet…" Jeremy sighed.

He wasn't prepared for a sudden onslaught of delighted questions, "This set up like a game. Where are the health bars? Are their enemy's in there? How much damage does getting hit do to the health bar? What happens if you run out?" At least, not when Lightning decided to be completely bipolar all of a sudden and remind Jeremy of a kid in a candy store. He suppressed a groan when he looked over and saw her expression. If he had to guess, he'd say her brain shut down a little when she saw the supercomputer, and only just started working again.

"The health bars are under their names. Yes, they take damage from a number of things, but they are pretty safe in the towers because Xana's creatures can't enter them. Damage depends on where you're hit, and the creature. When it runs out you get devirtualized back here." Jeremy replied, now resigned to his fate until the others got there.

"Why don't the creatures enter the towers, and if it was designed as a video game, why are the only creatures created by the bug?" Lightning persisted.

Jeremy was saved from trying to answer when Odd's picture flashed on the screen again when he called.

"Jeremy! I snuck out of detention, but I couldn't find Yumi or Ulrich. Apparently, their tournament is at another school, and should still be going on for quite a while."

"I'll keep trying, but you make your way over here, we can't waste anymore time, and I can't send Lightning."

"Send what?" Odd asked, confused.

"Who, Odd," Jeremy corrected, "The new kid, she got attacked with Aelita and me."

"Huh, oh well, you might want to try watching the news, I overheard some weird stuff while I was running around." Confused, Jeremy did as Odd asked.

"There is an out of control tractor heading for the nuclear power plant." Oh, so that's what it was about, "it's predicted to impact in 45 min., and a state of emergency has been declared, and teams have been formed to help citizens evacuate."

"Did you hear that? Where are you?"

"I'm-" Odd was cut off for a second, and they could hear talking on the other side before Odd continued talking in a whisper, "Bad news, one of the evacuation teams came to the school and are preventing me from going anywhere. They're going on about keeping us all together until our parents can come pick us up to evacuate. I don't think I'm going anywhere, anytime soon, security's tight."

Just then, Ulrich, then Yumi managed to pick up their phones.

"Jeremy? What's going on?" Yumi's voice was lowered slightly as if she didn't want someone to hear her.

"Xana attack, he's driving a tractor into a power plant, and everyone's evacuating. Odd is stuck at school because of the evacuation teams, so you need to get to the factory as fast as you can."

"A tractor? Seriously? Why on earth would he use a tractor?" Ulrich's voice was incredulous.

"No! We can't get there; the evacuation teams are here too. Are you sure Odd can't come instead?" Yumi said.

"Yumi's right though, there's no way, even if we do sneak out, we can't get to the factory in time to do anything. It will have to be up to Odd."

"Odd's positive he can't get here, not until it's too late that is."

"WHAT! What do we do now!?" Yumi was officially panicked.

"I'll keep trying, but it doesn't seem likely that I'll be able to get there in time. Aelita will either have to go alone or you send Lighting in." Odd said.

"Wait, what does the new girl have to do with this?" Ulrich asked slightly suspicious that Jeremy had been intentionally revealing Lyoko to someone without group consensus again. Which, to be fair, he was, even if it _was_ more do to her stubbornness than anything.

"She was attacked with Aelita and myself earlier." Jeremy said annoyed at having to explain what happened again.

"Aelita _can't _go alone" Ulrich said firmly.

"But the only other option is to send Lightning in," Yumi reminded him, "which I'm firmly against."

"Okay, so we vote on it, all in favor of sending Lightning in to help Aelita? Say I." Jeremy declared.

"I," Odd said

"I" Ulrich said in a slightly mournful voice after hesitating, still not willing to let Aelita go alone, but also not wanting to go against what Yumi wanted.

"And against?" Jeremy asked.

"I" Yumi said firmly.

"I'm afraid that I'm against it too." Jeremy looked sheepishly back at Lightning.

"So it's a tie, who wins?" Ulrich asked.

"Well don't _I_ get a vote?" Aelita asked, she didn't wait for them to answer though before saying, "I think she should come," Before Jeremy and Yumi could protest she continued, "there are far too many monsters for me try to go on my own. Besides, another Lyoko warrior would help prevent a situation like this again, so people will be in less danger."

"Uh, well, I guess that settles it." Jeremy said blushing a little at the fact he forgot about her. Lightning just rolled her eyes at the whole debate, although she was secretly pleased at the prospect of entering Lyoko therefore allowing her to study it.

"So I'm going?" Lightning asked, still privately wondering why it was such a big deal whether or not she went. Then she realized that if her guess was accurate, and the "Return to the Past" program used whether or not they went to Lyoko as way for it to know who should retain their memories, then they must have figured they'd be stuck with her if she went.

"Yes, there's a scanner you can use on the floor below us. (I can't remember where it was in relation to the computer room, if I'm wrong, just pretend otherwise.) Go down there and step into it, I'll start the process from there okay?"

"Alright" She said in a satisfied voice, before running to the elevator. She quickly pressed the button to go down a floor and Jeremy could see, for the first time, a smug smile plastered on her face when she turned back towards him that left him confused.

When she got there, there were three pillar-things along with tons of chords. Assuming they were the scanners she stepped into one, careful not to step on a chord since she did not want to find out whether or not the process would be stopped if something vital were unplugged as a safety measure. Don't get Lightning wrong, she did want to go to Lyoko, but she didn't feel like dying, and she was almost positive that the aforementioned safety measure did not exist.

Back in the room with the supercomputer's monitors, Jeremy started the virtualization process.

"Transfer Lightning…scanner Lighting,"

In the row of pictures of people scanned previously, Lightning's picture had yet to be filled in with her first virtualization, and appeared to be a grey box with a question mark. Hesitating only for a brief instant, he pressed 'enter'.

"Virtualization"

Light's POV: After the doors to the scanner closed behind me, I heard Jeremy's voice saying the same thing he did for Aelita, except using my name. I had briefly wondered why the scanners were made and shaped the way they were, until I began to float slightly in the air while it was scanning. Then I realized that it was probably the best design for the machine to scan all of me. This was my last thought before everything went dark for a second.

Light, trees, falling, it wasn't until I began to fall that I realized I had been materialized several feet in the air. I picked myself back up again with a slight groan, before I surveyed the area around me. It looked so real! I couldn't feel any texture to the ground, even though it had hurt, and I couldn't seem to smell anything either, but everything still looked and sounded real. Okay, so the trees _were_ a tad cartoonish, it was still amazing.

I glanced up curiously, trying to gauge my previous distance to the ground based on the quick view I had of the trees before my fall, and the time it took to reach the ground. What I found caused me to raise an eyebrow in disbelief. I realize that people risk getting materialized halfway into the ground if they were materialized directly on it, but wasn't that a bit much?

"Why was I materialized so high?"

"I'm not sure, you were materialized several feet higher than the others, but by looking at your appearance, I think I know why." Jeremy said, and I could hear the amusement in his voice.

My appearance? I remembered, for the first time the picture with Aelita's name on it that looked like a bizarre Halloween costume, and that this place was designed like a game, whether it was one or not. True the whole elf thing actually looked good on Aelita, and it does stand to reason that a person's appearance might change in a game. I was embarrassed that I hadn't thought of it earlier. Now I looked at myself, and thought I was going to be ill. Why me?

My shirt wouldn't have been so bad, it was loose fitting to the point where I was surprised that one of the short sleeves wasn't slipping off my shoulder, but I could live with that. I could have easily lived with its light, airy quality and the fact that it looked like silk even though I couldn't feel it to really know. In fact, I liked those parts. I always wear loose fitting shirts, it's not like a try for heavy clothing, and have no issues with silk.

The problem was the color. It was bright. blindingly bright. It wasn't even a set color. The color slowly changing from two or three garish colors to another two or three garish colors that appeared to be even brighter than before. In other words, for someone who tries to blend in as much as they can like me, it was horrifying.

"Lightning… Hey Lightning!" I realized that Jeremy had been trying to get my attention, "You okay?" he sounded a little worried.

"Y-yeah" I cursed myself for stuttering, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Aelita should be a little north of you. Go pick her up, and escort her to the activated tower, okay?"

"Yeah sure." I tried not to look at myself as I ran even though I was curious about the rest of my outfit. Instinctively I clutched my wrist, and was relieved to note that I still had my bracelet although I wondered why I did.

It wasn't hard to figure out what Jeremy meant about my appearance affecting how high I materialized before, when I began to run. Because it was then I noticed the wings. It is rather hard not to notice something slowing you down while you are running by catching the wind. Thankfully, they acted like a pair of limbs I never knew I had, which is why I didn't notice at first, but knew how to pull them back once I did. I couldn't get a good look at them while running, but when I slowed to a stop after getting to the tower, (wondering for a second whether I should enter or not) I was able to glance back.

My wings were translucent for the most part. The distortion of the colors behind them was color enough for them to be visible, and I could see veins running through them too. Unlike with the shirt, I immediately loved them.

My examination of my new wings, however, was brief since it only took a few seconds for Aelita to run out of the tower and towards me.


End file.
